Reconciliation
by shdwanna
Summary: After they escape from the dungeon, Scarlett and Snake Eyes must deal with what happened there. (SPOILERS ISSUE #3)


TITLE: Reconciliation 1/1  
AUTHOR: Angel Hungerford  
EMAIL: anna@zhadum.com  
DISCLAIMER: If they were mine, I wouldn't have split them up in the first place. Marvel, Hasbro, and the guys at Devil's Due who are doubtlessly trying very, very hard and are succeeding mostly in being very, very trying.  
FEEDBACK: Ooh, please? Please?  
DISTRIBUTION: List archives, fanfiction.net  
RATING: PG (for sappiness)  
PAIRING: S/SE  
SUMMARY: After they escape from the dungeon, Scarlett and Snake Eyes must deal with what happened there.  
SPOILERS: Through Issue #3  
  
Snake Eyes was brooding.  
  
Anyone else would think he was standing lookout, or watching the drill down on the tarmac, or half a dozen other things, but she knew from longest experience that he was doing none of them.  
  
He turned as she opened the door onto the roof, knowing she'd find him here, not knowing why she'd come. But there was something - even still, there was something between them. She'd thrown the words at him, refused to listen lest he break through her façade of fury. She was still angry, still bitter, had been since she'd woken up one morning to find him gone.   
  
Only the note: I can't.  
  
She'd been angry, held the anger tightly to herself so she didn't have to feel - anything else. The anguish. The rejection. The fact that she loved him still, fifteen years and still she wanted, wanted to give him everything she had and then find more.  
  
Seeing him again was harder than anything she'd ever done. Clinging to her redhead's temper, reclaiming her soldier's instincts, she'd slapped him because the only alternative was to kiss him, to beg him, to lose herself in him because it was only there that she truly felt at home.  
  
And then - the mission, their capture, the escape, like old times. Conjured like magicians, a perfect partnership, Steed and Mrs. Peel didn't have a patch on the two of them. Like old times. In his arms. But before she could get lost, rescue had come, bringing them back, and now he was brooding on the roof.  
  
*****  
  
Snake Eyes turned as he heard the door open, hoping it would be one of the new ones he could chase away with the silence they found so terrifying.  
  
It was Scarlett.  
  
He stopped. This was unexpected. He hadn't thought she would follow him. After she'd hugged him, shown him once again everything he'd lost, he expected she'd stay away, angry at herself for being vulnerable.  
  
But Scarlett had never been a woman of expected things.  
  
She was dressed in civvies, he noticed - jeans, a plaid shirt, hiking boots, and her leather pilot's jacket. And she was still the most beautiful thing he'd ever laid eyes on.  
  
That was the worst part.  
  
*****  
  
"Hi," she said, feeling stupid the minute it came out of her mouth.  
  
Snake Eyes walked across the graveled roof, ninja-silent. He wanted to know what she was doing here. Hell, so did she.  
  
"I missed you," she said.   
  
Silence. Always, the silence. But somehow she had to show him that the silence didn't matter.  
  
"Why did you leave?" It sounded pathetic, whiny. But why did she always have to be strong? Other women were allowed to be vulnerable.  
  
He stopped at that.  
  
In all her questions and accusations, she'd never asked that.  
  
"Why?" she repeated.  
  
"I didn't want to trap you," he signed.  
  
"Trap me?"  
  
"With," he paused, lowered his hands for a moment. "With me."  
  
She half-smiled. "You know, no one else would believe that you could possibly have such a major problem with your self-confidence."  
  
Scarlett closed the distance between them. "What can I do to make you believe that I love you? I want to be with you. Nothing else matters to me."  
  
His hands danced again. "You deserve better."  
  
"Than you? Spare me."  
  
"Much better than me."  
  
She shook her head fiercely, her new-shorn hair caressing her cheeks. Liking the feeling, she did it again. "He doesn't exist. And even if he did, I'm not interested in him. It's always been you."  
  
"Scarlett -" She loved the way he signed her name, but it occurred to her that maybe he needed to change it, now that her crowning glory was gone. For a moment, she felt rather like O. Henry's Della, but sans even the watch chain.  
  
"Snake Eyes. Have I ever lied to you?"  
  
He shook his head.  
  
"Then *believe me now.* I love you. You. Just the way you are. Silent, scarred, mysterious, flawed. None of that matters to me, and I wish you'd stop trying to make it matter."  
  
"Are you *sure*?"  
  
"Always."  
  
He pulled her into his arms.  
  
- FIN - 


End file.
